Wayfair loss widens despite record Q4 growth

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Dive Brief:

Wayfair on Friday reported that direct retail net revenue rose 41% to $1.99 billion, an increase of $576.6 million. Full year 2018 net revenue rose 44.7% year over year to $6.7 billion, an increase of $2.1 billion.

The company's number of active customers grew 37.9% year over year to 15.2 million (as of Dec. 31, 2018), according to a company press release. Advertising expenses were $232 million, compared to $166 million in Q4 2017. For the full year, advertising expenses were $774 million, compared to $550 million a year prior.

Net loss for the quarter was $143.8 million, up from its $72.8 million loss a year ago. For the full year 2018, net loss was $504.1 million, from the previous year's $244.6 million loss. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter was negative $53.8 million, compared to negative $21.2 million in the year-ago period. For fiscal 2018, adjusted EBITDA was negative $215 million, from negative $67 million a year prior.

Dive Insight:

Wayfair, whose operations include Wayfair.com, Joss & Main, AllModern, Birch Lane and Perigold, in addition to expanding its base of active customers, reported its "largest year over year dollar growth in a single quarter in our history," according to CEO Niraj Shah.

"Our offering is resonating more and more with our customers in North America and Europe, and we see clear parallels in the progress of our businesses in Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany and the successful course of Wayfair.com in the U.S. at similar stages of development," Shah said in a statement.

The company's mobile business also gained in the quarter, with the company reporting over half (51.8%) of total orders delivered for its direct retail business were placed through mobile devices, compared to 47.3% in the year-ago period.

Shah kept the focus on the company's "long-term approach to investing in the business," arguing that its growth shows the strength of its business and its brand. However, while Wayfair did pose strong revenue growth, its adjusted loss grew wider in the quarter and fiscal year. Shah said the company will place a greater focus on its supply chain to improve delivery, an important move as the home goods sector becomes crowded with more companies ramping up their e-commerce business and the emergence of other direct-to-consumer brands.

"We continue to expand our proprietary logistics infrastructure and take greater control of our inbound supply chain, enabling us to offer faster and more seamless delivery to customers and putting suppliers in the best possible position to scale their businesses as spend in our category moves online at pace," he said.